Many businesses have been forced to accelerate their shift to digital to survive Covid-19. And even though lockdown restrictions are gradually being lifted, social distancing concerns are likely to remain for a while, making it more important than ever for companies of all sizes to embrace digital. Thuy Gattaux, seasoned entrepreneur and founder of the brand-new app ‘Garde Ma Place’ came up with a solution that will help small businesses in Luxembourg do just that.
Photo: Thuy Gattaux, Founder of Garde Ma Place / Credits © Garde Ma Place
Thuy Gattaux is not only a digital entrepreneur; she has also been running her own home services agency since 2013. This venture has given her valuable insight into the day-to-day challenges faced by parents. She noticed that many parents were finding it difficult to find fun activities for their kids to do over the weekend or during school holidays. So she started thinking about a solution—and that’s how the idea for ‘Garde Ma Place’ was born.
‘Garde Ma Place’ is a mobile app designed to connect parents with children activity service providers within their geographical area. Parents can use the app to easily discover, book and pay for new and original activities that will keep their children entertained. Service providers like for example drama schools, sports clubs or even creative freelancers can sign up to the app to promote their services and manage bookings more efficiently. It’s a win-win for both parties, and it’s free to use for the time being.
You may be asking yourself: “What does that have to do with helping small businesses go digital?”. Bear with me.
“Entrepreneurs can end up with a fully personalised, tested, and ready-to-launch product within just a few weeks.”
After working with a team of app developers for over eight months to turn the initial idea into a final product, Thuy Gattaux and her business partner Louis Libart realised that the concept could be applied to a wide range of service industries. Any types of businesses relying heavily on reservations or bookings could use a similar type of app to digitalise their processes and reach clients more efficiently.
So they decided to shift their business model: rather than relying solely on sponsorship, as originally intended, they started offering ‘Garde Ma Place’ as a white label product. This gives businesses looking to move to digital quickly the opportunity to get their own, branded app developed within just a few weeks, and at a much lower cost than if they were to start the process from scratch.
Thuy is particularly passionate about this new business model because she knows it will make a real difference to small businesses and help them thrive in the long run, despite the post pandemic economic landscape: “By offering the platform as a white label, we’re helping entrepreneurs with a limited budget to fast track the lengthy app development process so they can end up with a fully personalised, tested, and ready-to-launch product within just a few weeks.”
The ‘Garde Ma Place’ white label app is particularly suited to small businesses and freelancers selling workshops, webinars, and in-person events. But as Thuy explains it can be tailored to any enterprise looking to streamline their reservation, appointment scheduling or online sales processes. For more information, you can get in touch with Thuy Gattaux.
